It’s a change we’re seeing accelerate by the month – custom clothiers are expanding beyond their home city and offering their clothes to shoppers across the US. Since we work with custom clothiers big and small we’ve seen what it takes to really connect with customers online and provide a top-notch experience.

Of course, at the same time, we’ve seen it done wrong which usually means taking all the magic out of the experience and leaving the customer headed for the back button. If you recently brought your offline business online, and you’re finding that nobody is buying, don’t panic, just know you’re probably making one or more of the mistakes below.

Luckily all of them can be corrected. Read on and learn how to sell custom clothing online without losing the experience you’ve provided to happy customers for years in your physical store. Below are three common mistakes custom clothiers make when they move their business online:

Bad product photography – this is #1 for a reason. When a customer walks into your store you probably have everything setup just right so that from the moment they enter, they realize they will have a premium experience. The same should be true online and nothing hurts this more than dark or blurry product photos. Whether you take them yourself or someone else takes them for you, a shopper should look at an article of clothing and say, “I would wear that!” If you aren’t a photography pro, don’t worry, you can easily hire someone to do it without breaking the bank.

No simple solution for getting body measurements – if your version of “innovation” is sending your customers a measuring tape in the mail then you’re likely seeing 98% of your customers leave without buying. That’s right, your average online shopper is used to seeing what they want and buying it. Waiting for a measuring tape or sample shirt to arrive in the mail means you’ll lose the vast majority of people who visit your site. Technology like the Virtual Tailor can predict a shoppers body measurements by asking a handful of simple questions – it doesn’t get any easier than that!

Poor mobile experience – while it may sound shocking, expect over 50% of your shoppers to visit your site on a mobile phone. This means that if your mobile experience is hard to use, you’ll lose more than 50% of your shoppers almost instantly. Popular eCommerce platforms like Shopify, Volusion, and BigCommerce have mobile-optimized themes that work right out of the box so you don’t have to spend a small fortune paying a developer to do this for you.

Want some examples of custom clothiers who do a great job with their eCommerce sites? Here’s a handful that are setting the bar high, which means they are great examples to learn from:

We hope this helps custom clothiers that are looking to make the leap from in-store to online. As always if you have any questions don’t hesitate to comment below or email us at concierge(at)fashionmetric.com.